The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus and lipoic acid treatment on serum paraoxonase-1 and paraoxonase-3 protein levels and paraoxonase, arylesterase and lactonase activities.36 rats were equally and randomly divided into 4 groups as control, lipoic acid, diabetes and diabetes+lipoic acid. To induce diabetes, a single dose of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally to diabetes and diabetes+lipoic acid groups. Lipoic acid (10 mg/kg/day) was injected intraperitoneally for 14 days to lipoic acid and diabetes+lipoic acid groups. Serum PON1 and PON3 protein levels were measured by western blotting. Serum paraoxonase, arylesterase and lactonase activities were determined by the measuring initial rate of substrate (paraoxon, phenylacetate and dihydrocoumarin) hydrolysis.Streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus caused a significant decrease whereas lipoic acid treatment caused a significant increase in serum PON1 and PON3 protein levels and paraoxonase, arylesterase and lactonase activities. The increase percent of serum PON3 protein was higher than that of serum PON1 protein and the increase percent of serum lactonase activity was higher than that of serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in diabetes+lipoic acid group.We can report that, like PON1 protein, PON3 protein and actually its lactonase activity may also have a role as an antioxidant in diabetes mellitus and lipoic acid treatment may be useful for the prevention of the atherosclerotic complications of diabetes by increasing serum PON1 and PON3 protein levels and serum enzyme activities.

Objective: DNA damage that can be caused by workplace exposure to antineoplastic drugs in health workers has been shown in many scientific studies. It is aimed to evaluate whether the risk of genotoxicity in health workers decreases after the regulations and measures taken by national and international health authorities in our work. Methods: For this purpose, DNA damage was assessed by using alkaline comet technique in lymphocytes isolated from blood samples of health workers (n=29) who were involved in preparing and / or administering antineoplastic agent at Trakya University Health Research and Application Center and compared with the control group (n=30). Also, those who prepare and/or administer antineoplastic agents; (n=16) and manual (n=13) preparations. Results: As a result of the evaluation, there was no statistically significant difference between health personnel and control group in preparing and / or administering antineoplastic agent (p>0,05, Mann-Whitney U) and there was no difference in the genotoxic risk between preparation forms. Furthermore, when the exposed control group was assessed for DNA damage as smokers and nonsmokers, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of DNA damage (p>0.05). Conclusion: At the center where our samples were taken, the resulting measures resulted in the control of the risk of genotoxicity due to occupational exposure to antineoplastic agents.

Objective In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of amitriptyline, fluoxetine, tranylcypromine and venlafaxine on saphenous vein grafts in coronary artery bypass graft surgeries. Methods 59 patients (40 males and 19 females; mean age 65.1 years, distribution: 45-84 years) who had coronary artery bypass graft surgery between February 2014 and May 2016 were included in the study. After the saphenous vein grafts with intact and denuded endothelium were precontracted with 3×10 -6 M phenylephrine, amitriptyline, fluoxetine and tranylcypromine were cumulatively added to isolated organ baths in the range of 10 -11 -3x10 -5 M, while venlafaxine was added in the range of 10 -9 -3×10 -5 M. Then, the antidepressant-induced relaxation responses were recorded isometrically. Results While the relaxation response of amitriptyline at -6.42 (Log M) was 74.6%, the response at -6.32 (Log M) was 75.5%. While the relaxation response at -6.46 (Log M) of fluoxetine was 68.02%, the response at -6.02 (Log M) was 72.12%. While the relaxation response of tranylcypromine at -7.53 (Log M) was 61.13%, the response at -7.23 (Log M) was 65.53%. While the relaxation response of venlafaxine at -6.21 (Log M) was 29.98%, the response at -5.90 (Log M) was 32.96%. Conclusion The maximum relaxation at minimum and maximum therapeutic concentrations was obtained with amitriptyline, fluoxetine and tranylcypromine, and the minimum relaxation was obtained with venlafaxine. The relaxation responses were independent of the endothelium.

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Neuroblastoma is a disease that is observed in early childhood, originating from the sympathetic nervous system and very difficult to treat. Etoposide, a topoisomerase 2 inhibitor, is one of the agents used in cancer treatment. Galangin and puerarin are plant-based antioxidants with anticancer properties. Since apoptosis induction is one of the methods used in cancer treatment, the evaluation of the mRNA expression levels of apoptosis-related genes is aimed in our study. We investigated the effects of etoposide and galangin/puerarin combination therapy on neuroblastoma and astrocyte cells’ apoptotic process in this study. IC50 dose was determined by MTT test in neuroblastoma and healthy astrocyte lines. Apoptosis-related mRNA gene expressions (topoisomerase 1 and 2α, BAX, p53, TNFα, BCL-2, caspase 3, IL-1, caspase 9) were evaluated in astrocyte and neuroblastoma cells at the dose of neuroblastoma IC50. It was resulted that in all groups, the neuroblastoma IC50 dose was lower than the healthy astrocyte cell IC50 dose and while an increase in apoptotic mRNA expressions was observed in the neuroblastoma cancer line, the mRNA expression changes in the astrocyte cell line did not cause apoptosis. Etoposide combinations antiproliferative effect was decreased relative to etoposide group. It is concluded that single therapy of galangin and puerarin may be promising in the treatment of neuroblastoma.